Quote:

---

During the 2012 Democrat National Convention, the narrative was that Barack Obama personally stepped in to resolve the issue of the party platform removing the recognition of Israel. I never believed the official story, but even if it isn’t true, to keep up appearances, that was the “official story.” Today, antisemitism has become mainstream in the Democrat Party, as socialist candidates are slowly taking over. Yet, where is Obama? He’s been silent on many issues related to his party’s radical shift to the left.

And what does his silence really say about him?

Larry Elder posed that question in a syndicated column that ran on our sister site, Hot Air, and it's a fair one. Obama has spent years positioning himself as a moral compass for his own party, quiet unless the stakes demand otherwise. He explained the standard himself, saying, "There are moments ... where our core values are at stake. In those moments, I think it's appropriate for me to say something."

Fine. So where is he now?

In 2013, Obama defended free markets without apology, saying, "...nobody questions the efficacy of market economies in terms of producing wealth and innovation and keeping us competitive." That was the Democrat Party's standard-bearer just over a decade ago.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to tear up that framework entirely. He has vowed to "replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism." That is a governing philosophy from a sitting big-city mayor that the party is eager to promote. Mamdani endorsed Darializa Avila Chevalier for the U.S. House, a candidate whose record makes Obama's Democrat Party look… well, I wouldn’t say “moderate” or “conservative” by comparison, but I’d say “less radical.”

Avila Chevalier once defended communism outright, and Claire Valdez, another Mamdani-endorsed nominee for the U.S. House, supports nationwide rent control. Mamdani, Avila Chevalier, and Valdez are all linked to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). This organization backs the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement and calls Israel an "apartheid" state committing "genocide" in Gaza.

As Elder pointed out, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken called that genocide accusation "meritless" in 2024. Obama has never used the word either. He defended Israel's right to defend itself after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. In 2025, he wrote on X, "After two years of unimaginable loss and suffering for Israeli families and the people of Gaza, we should all be encouraged and relieved that an end to the conflict is within sight; that those hostages still being held will be reunited with their families; and that vital aid can start reaching those inside Gaza whose lives have been shattered." Yet the DSA-backed candidates Obama's party keeps promoting use exactly the language his own administration rejected. Obama has said nothing about that either.

Obama himself used to laugh off the socialist label. He once told critics they should "meet real socialists," and he spent years warning Americans against ideological extremes on both sides.

So what's the real reason Obama hasn't said anything? From where I sit, the answer is that his party is becoming exactly what he wanted it to be. Obama's presidency pushed the country through the sharpest leftward turn it has experienced since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. He couldn't get all the way there alone, but his eight years in office gave the party room to test how far left it could move on Israel and on economics alike.

Look at what he actually built. The 2009 stimulus was one of the largest government interventions in market activity in American history. Obamacare handed Washington unprecedented control over the nation's healthcare system. Medicaid expansion under that law extended federal-state coverage to millions more, with the federal government initially covering most of the cost. His administration also took over the student loan industry, cutting private lenders out of the market.

Obama's public rhetoric stayed friendly to markets and capitalism. His policy record tells a different story, one of steady government expansion into healthcare, lending, and the broader economy. Mamdani, Avila Chevalier, and Valdez are simply the next chapter of that legacy. Obama built the environment that made all of this possible, and that's exactly why he's staying silent now.

---